Suparna Rajaram

Suparna Rajaram, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook University, is an Indian-born cognitive psychologist and expert on memory and amnesia.[1] Rajaram served as Chair of the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society (2008) and as president of the Association for Psychological Science (2017-2018).[2] Along with Judith Kroll and Randi Martin, Rajaram co-founded the organization Women in Cognitive Science in 2001, with the aim of improving the visibility of contributions of women to cognitive science.[3] In 2019, she was an inaugural recipient of Psychonomic Society's Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award for significant contributions and sustained leadership in the discipline of cognitive psychology.[4]

Suparna Rajaram
Born
Bellary, India
OccupationSUNY Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Academic background
Alma materBangalore University, Purdue University, Rice University
Academic work
InstitutionsStony Brook University

Rajaram is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Psychonomic Society,[5] the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, the Eastern Psychological Association,[6] and the Association for Psychological Science. She is also a member of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, a prestigious honor society dedicated to psychology.[7] In 2022, Rajaram was named a Guggenheim Fellow.

Biography

Suparna Rajaram was born in Bellary, India.[8] She received a B.A. in psychology, Economics, and English Literature (1984) and a M.A. in psychology (1986) from Mt. Carmel College of Bangalore University. She moved to the United States to pursue a M.S. in Cognitive Psychology at Purdue University, and completed her degree in 1988 under the supervision of James H. Neely.[9] Rajaram continued her education at Rice University, where she obtained her PhD in Cognitive Psychology in 1991 under the supervision of Henry L. Roediger, III.[10] While at Rice, Rajaram collaborated with Roediger on research comparing assessments of implicit memory.[11] From 1991 to 1993, Rajaram was a post-doctoral research fellow at Temple University School of Medicine, where she conducted research on amnesia with H. Branch Coslett.[12]

Rajaram joined the Faculty of Psychology at Stony Brook University in 1993 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2003. She served as the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University (2012-2015). Rajaram received a FIRST Award from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH). In addition to NIMH, her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and Google. Rajaram served as Associate Editor of Psychological Science (2007-2008), Psychological Bulletin (2003-2005), and Memory & Cognition (1998-2001).[13]

Research

Rajaram's research program encompasses studies of human amnesia and intact memory to address the cognitive and neural bases of memory functions, such as the distinction between explicit memory and implicit memory.[14][15] Her lab has examined differences in the effects of repeated testing and repeated studying on learning, and how repetition impacts learning of new information in amnesia. In one of her studies, her team examined how repetition of information confers advantages in knowing versus remembering information in individuals with amnesia.[16] They found that repetition helped people with amnesia gain a sense of familiarity with material (i.e., knowing), whereas for individuals with normal memory, repetition enhanced both familiarity and recollection (i.e., knowing and remembering).

Rajaram has conducted numerous studies focusing on how social factors influence learning and memory. Her lab aims to understand the social transmission of memory in groups of people and in social networks, the emergence of collective memory, and how collaborative learning may help or hinder memory.[17] Her research indicates that collaboration with peers often weakens the memory performance of individuals; at the same time getting help from one's peers may help to eliminate memory errors.[18][19] Rajaram's 2014 paper on social transmission of memory, co-authored with H.Y. Choi, H.M. Blumen, and A.R. Congleton, was named "Best Paper of the Year" by European Society of Cognitive Psychology.[20] This study examined a phenomenon known as collaborative inhibition, wherein individuals contribute less to recalling information when they are part of a group than when they are recalling information on their own. This study explored how changing the membership of groups influenced individual and collective memory.[21] Rajaram and her colleagues have also studied how emotion enhances memory. They found that emotional memories are not immune to error, yet emotional memories are less likely to be distorted by social influences than nonemotional memories.[22]

Representative publications
  • Rajaram, S. (1993). Remembering and knowing: Two means of access to the personal past. Memory & Cognition, 21 (1), 89–102.
  • Rajaram, S. (1996). Perceptual effects on remembering: recollective processes in picture recognition memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22 (2), 365–377.
  • Rajaram, S. (1998). The effects of conceptual salience and perceptual distinctiveness on conscious recollection. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5 (1), 71–78.
  • Rajaram, S., & Geraci, L. (2000). Conceptual fluency selectively influences knowing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26 (4), 1070–1074.
  • Rajaram, S., & Pereira-Pasarin, L. P. (2010). Collaborative memory: Cognitive research and theory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5 (6), 649–663.
  • Rajaram, S., & Roediger, H. L. (1993). Direct comparison of four implicit memory tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19 (4), 765–776.

References
  1. Communications, Stony Brook Office of. "Suparna Rajaram | Experts at Stony Brook University, New York". www.stonybrook.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  2. Rajaram, Suparna (30 April 2018). "On Spanning the Borders". APS Observer. 31 (5).
  3. "People | Women in Cognitive Science". womenincogsci.org. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  4. "Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award - Psychonomic Society". www.psychonomic.org. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  5. "Suparna Rajaram - Psychonomic Society". www.psychonomic.org. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  6. "EPA Fellows - Eastern Psychological Association". www.easternpsychological.org. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  7. "Suparna Rajaram Elected to Society of Experimental Psychologists | | SBU News". SBU News. 10 December 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  8. "Suparna Rajaram, Ph.D. | Social Memory and Cognition Lab". you.stonybrook.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  9. Rajaram, Suparna; Neely, James H. (1 April 1992). "Dissociative masked repetition priming and word frequency effects in lexical decision and episodic recognition tasks". Journal of Memory and Language. 31 (2): 152–182. doi:10.1016/0749-596X(92)90009-M. ISSN 0749-596X.
  10. Rajaram, Suparna (1993). "Remembering and knowing: Two means of access to the personal past". Memory & Cognition. 21 (1): 89–102. doi:10.3758/bf03211168. ISSN 0090-502X. PMID 8433652.
  11. Rajaram, Suparna; Roediger, Henry L. (1993). "Direct comparison of four implicit memory tests". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 19 (4): 765–776. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.19.4.765. ISSN 1939-1285. PMID 8345323.
  12. Rajaram, Suparna; Coslett, H. Branch (2000). "Acquisition and transfer of new verbal information in amnesia: Retrieval and neuroanatomical constraints". Neuropsychology. 14 (3): 427–455. doi:10.1037/0894-4105.14.3.427. ISSN 1931-1559. PMID 10928746.
  13. "Suparna Rajaram - Psychonomic Society". www.psychonomic.org. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  14. "Suparna Rajaram - Psychonomic Society". www.psychonomic.org. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  15. "People | Women in Cognitive Science". womenincogsci.org. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  16. Verfaellie, Mieke; Rajaram, Suparna; Fossum, Karen; Williams, Lisa (2008). "Not all repetition is alike: Different benefits of repetition in amnesia and normal memory". Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. 14 (3): 365–372. doi:10.1017/S1355617708080612. ISSN 1469-7661. PMC 2396955. PMID 18419835.
  17. "Research | Social Memory and Cognition Lab". you.stonybrook.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  18. Rajaram, Suparna (2011). "Collaboration Both Hurts and Helps Memory". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 20 (2): 76–81. doi:10.1177/0963721411403251. ISSN 0963-7214. S2CID 19179853.
  19. Rajaram, Suparna; Pereira-Pasarin, Luciane P. (2010). "Collaborative Memory: Cognitive Research and Theory". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 5 (6): 649–663. doi:10.1177/1745691610388763. ISSN 1745-6916. PMID 26161882. S2CID 20159993.
  20. "ESCOP Journal's 'Best Paper' Shows How Collaboration Influences Memory". Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  21. Choi, Hae-Yoon; Blumen, Helena M.; Congleton, Adam R.; Rajaram, Suparna (3 December 2013). "The role of group configuration in the social transmission of memory: Evidence from identical and reconfigured groups". Journal of Cognitive Psychology. 26 (1): 65–80. doi:10.1080/20445911.2013.862536. ISSN 2044-5911. S2CID 19160059.
  22. Kensinger, Elizabeth A.; Choi, Hae-Yoon; Murray, Brendan D.; Rajaram, Suparna (23 February 2016). "How social interactions affect emotional memory accuracy: Evidence from collaborative retrieval and social contagion paradigms". Memory & Cognition. 44 (5): 706–716. doi:10.3758/s13421-016-0597-8. ISSN 0090-502X. PMC 4942488. PMID 26907480.
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